Watch: Remembering Gehrig's iconic 'Luckiest Man' speech

Independence Day is special to begin with, but on July 4, 1939, it was the end of one of baseball's most legendary careers.

Less than a month after he was diagnosed with ALS and announced his retirement from baseball, New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig gave one of the greatest speeches in the history of baseball, under the most dire circumstances.

"For the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got," Gehrig said in between an Independence Day double-header between the Yankees and the Washington Senators. "Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth."

Two years later on June 2, 1941, Gehrig died from the disease, and ballparks around the majors flew their flags at half-staff.

(Video courtesy: MLB.com)